Both the Democratic Party in America and the Liberal Party in Canada (propped up by the NDP Party) have been coopted by bureaucrats, educated managerial professionals and business class establishment. With the help of the state sponsored media, they have imposed destructive social policies and public-private partnerships, tarring anyone who challenges their ‘performative empathy’ social justice crusades as racist, sexist, transphobic, or otherwise variations of bigot. These policies, such as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Environmental Social Governance have notably been failures on every level. Yet, the Liberals and Democrats dogmatically persist with these ideologies, despite their incredible unpopularity. Where they have succeeded is in replacing class solidarity with a highly atomized, oppression-based identity politic which serves superficial platitudes through land acknowledgements and the inclusion of pronouns on social media profiles.
Postmodernity and its discourse have helped transform the transgressive and rebellious nature of youth, channeling this energy into the oppression olympics and empty virtue signaling, fracturing any possible aims for universality. Instead, the left has pushed for the striving of authenticity and virtue through consumption and having the “correct” level of social awareness and political correctness. This puritan-esque climate kills creativity and innovation, for anyone who does not conform is rooted out and seen as an example of lacking moral character.
It's worth noting that the term 'woke' is thought to have originated in African American populations several decades ago, referring to being awake to the racial injustices experienced by many African Americans and the systemic racism that existed at the time. Wokeism was then bastardized by the very 'elites' responsible for the plight of African Americans, to be repackaged for wider public consumption. The veneer of social good was used to placate demands for economic changes that would materially improve the lives of working class people. While the Democrats and Liberals used to consolidate working class voters through focusing on improving economic conditions, they abandoned this, to instead cater to the university educated class and transnational corporations who would market their vacuous acceptance of LGBT communities and push diversity quotas, never threatening the economic conditions that held them in power.
After the fallout from the 2008 banking crisis, masses of people were justifiably angry and came together in the Occupy Wall Street movement to demand change. Through the years since then, there has been a noticeable shift in messaging and policies adopted by many transnational organizations and Western governments, particularly surrounding divisive issues like climate change, gender and race equity, trans ideology, and rights to individual freedom vs privacy and safety regarding public health. These manifested in significant social movements like Black Lives Matter, Me Too, and the cancellation of individuals without due process. This gave rise to the newest forms of propaganda in the free speech vs censorship debate, through the narrative that ‘misinformation and disinformation’ are now the greatest threats to democracy.
It is my belief that these agendas were pushed for several reasons, mainly to divide the people who were seen as a threat under Occupy Wall Street, but also to create an illusion of meaningful change as demanded by the masses and to usher in a new form of tyranny from the left, safeguarding power and control over the majority. This was all part of an experimental social engineering program which was/is incredibly complex and sophisticated, accelerated during the Covid 19 pandemic. Of course this program is still continuing, yet it's quite clear that much of the working class have been alienated by these fairly niche culture war issues which receive more attention than increasing poverty and homelessness, among many other more serious problems. No longer are we accepting the disparaging claims that government and activists make against us, ie being labelled racist or sexist for refusing to agree to polarizing ideologies that are not effective and which cause real harm.
The Leftist parties that used to fight for the working classes are now completely disconnected from them and serving the elites who enrich themselves while speaking about de-colonialism and gender equity. In turn, the working classes have become more and more captured by right wing populist movements. Who can blame them, when for the majority, their lives are considerably more precarious than they were a decade ago. Poverty, homelessness, food insecurity, mental illness and general malaise have increased in the last few decades and covid 19 ushered in the largest transfer of wealth in modern history. Thus, many people are giving up on the pseudo Leftist movements and begging for Conservatives in Canada and Trump’s Republicans in America, to fix the economy. The very irony and obvious result of alienating and chastising those who would not accept your radical mandates and whom you so clearly detested as your base.
So where do we go from here? Can we have real political movements that truly support the working class? Are we all simply falling for the same grift over and over again by voting for the ‘other’ alternative political party, the only other option in our supposed democracy? Is this all part of the plan, window dressing to give us the illusion of a choice while leading us down the same path, disguised through slightly different doctrines but ultimately emanating in authoritarian, crony capitalism?
Unfortunately, yes. But, the good news is that ‘wokeism’ is a dying phenomenon and though potentially inducing schizophrenia, the internet can be instrumental in coordinating movements and exploring new political ideas. We must fight back against the forces which keep us in our own echo chambers, feeding us content that is both radicalizing us and completely adulterating our sense of reality, and more importantly, our shared reality. We must develop a sense of ~class consciousness~ to create a protopian future outside of the limits of establishment politics.
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